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Message: <blockquote data-quote="pemerton" data-source="post: 8477650" data-attributes="member: 42582">OK, I get where you were going.Yes, the drafting of the licence is weird. It states that acceptance is generated by playing/using Cortex:By using any aspect of the Cortex System (e.g., by creating Products on the Cortex Platform), you acknowledge that you have read, understand and agree to be bound by this Non-Commercial Community License Agreement re Cortex ("License").That's obviously absurd. There's no process of offer and acceptance. Even if they printed it in their books, it still wouldn't bind the purchaser of the book, because the only thing that the licence confers - "a personal, limited, non-exclusive license to use the Cortex System to create Cortex System-compatible products (“Products”) for your personal, limited non-commercial use" - is already conferred by purchasing the book (what else is a RPG book doing?). Likewise, if you buy a book then you can give it away to whomever you like, contra this term of the clause 1: "You are prohibited from sub-licensing, renting, leasing or otherwise distributing the Cortex System or rights to use the Cortex System."The limitation in clause 2 - "You may not remove or alter Fandom's trademarks or logos, or legal notices included in the Cortex System or related assets" - implies that this is a licence intended to permit some sort of use of Cortex trademarks in a limited fashion. Maybe by "Cortex System-compatible products" they mean products branded as Cortex compatible? This impression is reinforced by this, also from clause 2 - "You must use your best efforts to preserve the high standard of our trademarks."I think if I write on my book This is compatible with Cortex Prime I'm probably not using their trademark in such a fashion as to require a licence, and I wouldn't accept their offer of a licence. So for the licence to actually have any value I must be using their trademark in some more trademark-y fashion. But they then say (also clause 2) that "You may not use Fandom's trade dress for your Products or advertisements" which makes me wonder what exactly is being licensed?I think it's a bit of a mess.The reason I need a licence is to use someone else's IP: eg if I'm using their software on my computer (which involves copying it) or if I'm printing some of their text or if I'm using their trademark in the course of my trade. But just playing a RPG doesn't require a licence beyond what is implicitly granted by selling the book in the first place, which is clearly sold as a tool for playing RPGs. (Eg WotC can't assert that your creation of stories at your RPG table involving Venca and Acerack is a breach of their copyright, given they sold their books precisely so that purchasers could create such stories at their tables.)And even if you are doing something that requires a licence, I don't think that you can accept Fandom's offer of a licence just by doing the thing that requires a licence. Acceptance requires some sort of mental advertence to the accepting of the licence - eg clicking a clearly-labelled button, opening a clearly-labelled package, etc.</blockquote>

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